Go

Go: My Favorite Game

I fell in love with go about ten years ago. It's an old Chinese board game, dating back to at least 500 BCE. My interest in it was first piqued when I found out that computers couldn't beat children at go even though they had been beating the world's best chess players for decades. As someone who grew up playing chess, that was enough to get me started. After just a few weeks of playing, I was hooked. The game has a seemingly inexhaustible depth, which gives me the enjoyment of constantly learning as I play. The better I get, the more I realize how deep the iceberg goes.

I should mention, however, that as of last year that fun little factoid ceased to be true. Google's artificial intelligence wing, DeepMind, wrote a program that beat some of the best players in the world, and it has continued improving to the point that no humans are able to beat it. But that hasn't made me any less interested in the game!

In case you'd like to learn more about go, here are some links:

Here I am at a tournament in Syracuse, NY.

Google Sites

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